New open access journal

Relegere: studies in religion and reception is a new open-access, peer-reviewed journal from the University of Otago (New Zealand)
The journal publishes studies of the transmission, reception and effect of religious ideas, narratives and images within any medium, including oral tradition, film, television, literature and drama.
Vol.1, no.1 (2011) is now available (click "current" on the webpage)
Contents of the first issue include

• Rethinking premodern Japanese Buddhist texts: a case study of Prince Shotoku's "Sangyo-gisho" (Mark Dennis)
• Life of Brian or Life of Jesus? Uses of critical Biblical scholarship and non-orthodox views of Jesus in "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (James Crossley)

Religion and politics

Two stories highlighting the tensions where religious sensibilities and politics clash

(1) Via GoogleNews - report from Associated Press on Israel's opening up of the traditional site of the baptism of Jesus on the River Jordan to visitors on a daily basis - a scheme which is opposed by both the Jordanians and the Palestinians

(2) Report from Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper (online) on demands by Turkey's Syriac Christian community to be able to use traditional Syriac surnames (a law of 1934 had banned the use of "foreign" surnames in Turkey)

Stock moves : Jewish studies

All large and standard sized books on Jewish studies have been moved to their new location on Level B of the Library
These comprise:

• QI - Biblical studies
• QJ - Palestine / Israel (in Western languages)
• QN - Hebrew (ancient, medieval and modern)
• QO - Jews and Judaism
• QPA & QPB - Yiddish and Ladino (selected titles only)

Reference books for these subjects are still on Level C for the time being, but will be relocated to Level B shortly.